1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing method and apparatus for securely sharing personalized information.
2. Description of the Related Art
A current information processing apparatus (image processing apparatus) such as a digital multifunctional peripheral (MFP) has a number of functions. Examples of the functions are copying, printing from a personal computer (PC), mail send of documents scanned by a scanner, and storage of scanned documents. A user often saves the information of high frequently operation environments to improve the operability in using these functions of the image processing apparatus. For example, mail address tables and shortcuts of functions with high use frequency are formed.
However, a user does not always use only a specific image reading apparatus. In an environment where a user uses a plurality of image processing apparatuses, the same information must be input to image processing apparatuses to be frequently used.
In this method, however, since the same information must be set in each of image processing apparatuses that require input, the operation is very cumbersome.
An invention to solve this problem is disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-312302. According to this invention, in transmitting image data generated by reading a document image to a service on the Internet, service list information is acquired from an IC card, and set windows and set procedures are personalized for the operator. The various personalized settings are transmitted together with the image data.
However, although not mentioned in this prior art, the personalized information remains in other image reading apparatuses and causes a security problem. To solve this problem, conventionally, the user manually deletes information remaining on each image reading apparatus. However, this method depends on the user's manual operation, and the user may forget to delete information in some of a plurality of image reading apparatuses, leaving the security problem unsolved.